Sunday 4 February 2018 7–8.30pm Barbican Hall

LSO SEASON CONCERT THE ‘RESURRECTION’ SYMPHONY

Mahler Symphony No 2, ‘Resurrection’ No interval Semyon Bychkov conductor

Christiane Karg soprano

Anna Larsson alto

London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director

Streamed live on youtube.com/lso

5.30pm Barbican Hall LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists Songs by Hanns Eisler, Alexander von Zemlinsky and Kurt Weill Free entry

MAHLER 2

2 Welcome

Welcome

The Orchestra is also joined onstage by the London Symphony Chorus, prepared by LSO Choral Director Simon Halsey.

This evening’s concert is being streamed live on the LSO’s YouTube channel, where it will also be available to watch after the performance.

Earlier tonight, musicians from the Guildhall School performed songs by Eisler, Zemlinsky and Weill in a short recital, free to ticket-holders. This series seeks to complement and amplify the repertoire in the Orchestra’s programme and provide a platform for the musicians of the future. For further details visit lso.co.uk/lsoplatforms.

I hope that you enjoy tonight’s performance and that you can join us again soon. On 19, 22 and 26 April LSO Music Director Sir Simon Rattle continues our exploration of Mahler with the two symphonies the composer never heard performed in his lifetime, the Ninth and Tenth.

Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director

A warm welcome to tonight’s LSO concert at the Barbican. This evening we hear one of Mahler’s most monumental orchestral works, the Second Symphony, also known as the ‘Resurrection Symphony’.

Following his highly successful performance of Mahler’s Fifth with the LSO in October last year, we are delighted that conductor Semyon Bychkov returns to lead another of Mahler’s great symphonies. It is always a pleasure to work alongside him, and we greatly anticipate what will be another memorable concert this evening.

We also welcome two exceptional soloists: soprano Christiane Karg, who last joined the Orchestra in February 2017 for Mahler’s Fourth Symphony; and alto Anna Larsson, who has been a regular collaborator with the LSO over the past decade.

4 February 2018

LSO NewsTHE LSO’S 2018/19 SEASON

The LSO’s 2018/19 season is now on sale. Highlights include Music Director Sir Simon Rattle’s exploration of folk-inspired music in his series Roots and Origins; Artist Portraits with soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Daniil Trifonov; and eight premieres across the season. Visit lso.co.uk/201819season for tickets.

NEW ON LSO PLAY: DEBUSSY PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE

Watch Principal Guest Conductor François-Xavier Roth conduct Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune from multiple camera angles on our interactive platform LSO Play. Available at play.lso.co.uk.

LIVE STREAM ON YOUTUBE

Tonight’s concert is being broadcast live on the LSO’s YouTube channel, preceded by introductions and interviews streamed live on Facebook. The broadcast is free to watch, and will be available to watch back shortly after on YouTube. Find out more at lso.co.uk/livestream

Read our news online • lso.co.uk/news

On Our BlogBEHIND THE SCENES: WHY IS A GREEN ROOM CALLED A GREEN ROOM?

Why are performers’ rooms in a venue called green rooms? We look further into this surprisingly difficult question.

MEET DAVID ELTON, OUR NEW PRINCIPAL TRUMPET

We get to know our newest member of the Trumpet section, who comes to the LSO from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS

This evening we are delighted to welcome: Royal Academy of Music École Européenne Bruxelles II Campus Travel Australia

Read our blog, watch videos and more • youtube.com/lso • lso.co.uk/blog

3Tonight’s Concert

Tonight’s Concert / by Stephen Johnson

of the poem Mahler set in the finale: ‘Cease from trembling! Prepare yourself to live!’ Or one can simply allow oneself to be carried along by the music. One of the most remarkable things about Mahler’s music is the way it can weave stirring, deeply moving narratives while inviting us to draw our own conclusions about what it all ‘means’. Above all, this is music that speaks to the heart.

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER

Stephen Johnson is the author of Bruckner Remembered (Faber) and Mahler: His Life and Music (Naxos). He also contributes regularly to BBC Music Magazine and The Guardian, and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, Radio 4 and the World Service.

hen Mahler completed his ‘Resurrection’ Symphony in 1894, it was the biggest, most ambitious

symphony anyone had ever composed. Scored for chorus, soloists and a massive, colour-enhanced orchestra, and lasting around 80 minutes, it attempted nothing less than a depiction of the soul’s journey from death to resurrection, in music of unsurpassed vividness and raw emotional power. If ever a symphony deserved to be described as ‘heaven-storming’, it was this one. Unsurprisingly, there were many who mocked Mahler for his shameless audacity, but with time the voice of ridicule has been marginalised, to be replaced by intense admiration and, for some, an almost religious devotion.

But how religious is Mahler’s Second Symphony? Mahler’s ‘conversion’ to Roman Catholicism in 1897 was almost certainly a political move. Catholic imagery stirred him, but so too did the atheist philosophies of Arthur Schopenhauer and Friedrich Nietzsche. His expressed views seem complicated and even contradictory. But it’s quite possible to read the Symphony in a humanist light: ‘Resurrection’ as a rising from the dead into the fullness of life here and now. The challenge is to rise above fear of mortality, or in the words

Spring 2018: Elgar & SchumannThursday 8 February 2018 7.30pm Barbican Hall SIR MARK ELDER: ELGAR

Janáček Schluck und Jau Bartók Piano Concerto No 3 Elgar Symphony No 1

Sir Mark Elder conductor

Francesco Piemontesi piano

Sunday 11 February 2018 7pm Barbican Hall SIR MARK ELDER: ELGAR

Dvořák Overture: Othello Bruch Violin Concerto No 1 Elgar Symphony No 2

Sir Mark Elder conductor

Nikolaj Znaider violin

Sunday 11 March 2018 7pm Barbican Hall

SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER: SCHUMANN

Schumann Overture: Genoveva Berlioz Les nuits d’été

Schumann Symphony No 2

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano

Thursday 15 March 2018 7.30pm Barbican Hall SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER: SCHUMANN Schumann Overture: Genoveva Mozart Piano Concerto No 25 Schumann Overture, Scherzo and Finale Schumann Symphony No 4 Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor Piotr Anderszewski piano

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4 Programme Notes 4 February 2018

Gustav Mahler Symphony No 2 in C minor, ‘Resurrection’ 1888–94 / note by Stephen Johnson

FIRST MOVEMENT After the grimly arresting beginning (growls from cellos and basses through nervous string tremolos) the long first movement settles into a steady march tempo. Mahler revealed that he imagined a spectator watching a hero being carried to his grave, and asking, ‘Why did you live? Why did you suffer? Is it all nothing but a huge, dreadful joke?’

A gentler second theme in the major key (violins) briefly holds out the promise of an answer, but it soon fades back into the funeral march – faster now, and more urgent. The alternation of the two themes, one dark and despairing, the other light and hopeful continues, but ultimately the funeral tread returns darker than ever, until the movement is extinguished with a furious final gesture – like Macbeth’s despairing ‘Out, out, brief candle!’

SECOND MOVEMENT The shorter second movement, according to Mahler’s instructions in the score, should follow a five-minute pause after the first movement, although this is not always observed in performance. Mahler’s original programme describes the movement as ‘a memory – a shaft of sunlight from out of

1 Allegro maestoso: Mit durchaus ernstem und feierlichen Ausdruck (With a serious and solemn expression throughout) 2 Andante moderato: Sehr gemächlich! Nie eilen! (Very moderate. Never rushing) 3 InruhigfliessenderBewegung (Calmlyflowing) 4 ‘Urlicht’: Sehr feierlich, aber schlicht (Choralmässig) (Very solemn but simple, like a chorale)

5 Im Tempo des Scherzos: Wild herausfahrend (Scherzo tempo: In a wild outburst)

Semyon Bychkov conductor Christiane Karg soprano Anna Larsson alto London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director

ahler was once asked by a young admirer for a key to the ‘meaning’ of Symphony No 2 (1888–94).

He refused: ‘I would regard my work as having failed completely if I found it necessary to give people like yourself even an indication as to its mood-sequence. In my conception of the work I was in no way concerned with the detailed setting forth of an event, but much rather of a feeling’.

One can understand Mahler’s frustration. At first he’d provided explanatory programme notes, but the public kept getting the wrong end of the stick. His wife Alma remembered how, after a performance of this Symphony, an old Russian lady approached the composer, ‘telling him that she felt her death to be near, and would he enlighten her about the other world, as he had said so much about it in his Second Symphony? Alas, he was not so well informed about it as she supposed, and when he took his leave he was made to feel very distinctly that she was displeased with him’. Mahler’s final verdict on this issue was succinct: ‘Perish all programmes!’

But the question remains: how are we to make sense of a work like the ‘Resurrection’ Symphony? Obviously this is not ‘music about music’. The last two movements

have texts dealing with matters of faith and doubt, and how belief in a God of Love can be reconciled with human suffering. Even when there are no words, there are pointers: the first movement, for instance, is unmistakably a gigantic funeral march.

So the Second Symphony as a whole marks a huge progression from darkness to light, from death to life – ‘Resurrection’. Mahler may have had his doubts about a benign, omnipotent personal ‘God’, but he never really doubted the redeeming power of love. It is also possible to find a humanist meaning: resurrection as a rising from the dead into the fullness of life here and now. As in Henrik Ibsen’s almost exactly contemporary play When We Dead Awaken, the challenge is to rise above fear of mortality. In the words of Klopstock’s • Resurrection Ode, with which Mahler closes the finale: ‘Cease from trembling! Prepare yourself to live!’

— On wings that I have won me

Shall I soar away! I shall die, in order to live!

— Symphony No 2, Finale

5Programme Notes

the life of this hero’. The music is steeped in the kind of Austrian country dance tunes (especially the Ländler •, country cousin of the sophisticated urban Waltz) with which Mahler had a lifelong love-hate relationship.

THIRD MOVEMENT After this, the sinister, sarcastic humour of the third movement (a Scherzo in all but name) comes as a shock. ‘It can easily happen,’ Mahler wrote, ‘that existence becomes horrible to you, like the swaying of dancing figures in a brightly lit ballroom, into which you peer from the dark night outside … from which you perhaps start away with a cry of disgust.’ The terrifying full orchestral ‘cry of disgust’ near the end is unmistakable.

FOURTH MOVEMENT Again we have complete contrast. The tiny fourth movement opens with the alto singing the first line of the anonymous folk poem Urlicht (Primal Light). An anguished central section reaches its climax at the words ‘I am from God and will return to God’. At this, peace is resumed, and the movement ends with a beautiful final sigh on the word Leben – ‘Life’.

FINALE Then the finale erupts with the ‘cry of disgust’ that ended the third movement. But gradually a new stillness comes over the music, with distant horn-calls and stirrings of life from woodwind and strings. A woodwind chant recalls the Medieval chant Dies irae – Day of Wrath. Then an apocalyptic march section (with off-stage bands) builds to an awe-inspiring climax as Mahler paints a quasi-Medieval picture of the dead arising on the day of judgement. This culminates in another ‘cry of disgust’, now amplified with fanfares from the enlarged brass section.

Another moment of stillness, then more off-stage fanfares are heard, enriched with sweet woodwind birdsong. A different view of resurrection now follows as the chorus enters: ‘Rise again, yes, you shall rise again’. Soprano and alto soloists recall and develop the Urlicht music. Finally chorus, full orchestra and organ lead to a thrilling apotheosis on the final lines of Klopstock’s hymn: ‘What you have struggled for shall carry you to God’. The symphony culminates in massive brass calls and the triumphal clangour of gongs and bells. •

• THE LÄNDLER

The Ländler was a late-18th century folk dance from Austria, popular also in southern Germany, Switzerland and Slovenia. It was a dance for couples, in triple meter, featuring hopping, stamping and sometimes even yodelling. A number of Mahler’s symphonies feature this form.

• FRIEDRICH GOTTLIEB KLOPSTOCK

Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock (1724–1803) was a German poet whose work marked a transition away from the objective rationalism of the Enlightenment and towards the subjective individualism of Romanticism. A prolific writer of dramas, hymns and odes (such as Die Auferstehung, ‘Resurrection Ode’, which would inspire Mahler), much of his legacy rests on the epic poem Der Messias (‘The Messiah’). At 19,458 lines long, entirely in free-verse, it caused an outrage in German literary circles. They were not ready to abandon formal strictness, though the freedom allowed a new generation of writers, including Schiller and Goethe, to develop their styles.

6 Texts 4 February 2018

Gustav Mahler Symphony No 2: Texts / translation by Rod Isted

4 URLICHT Alto O Röschen roth! Der Mensch liegt in grösster Noth! Der Mensch liegt in grösster Pein! Je lieber möcht’ ich im Himmel sein! Da kam ich auf einem breiten Weg; Da kam ein Engelein und wollt’ mich abweisen. Ach nein! Ich liess mich nicht abweisen! Ich bin von Gott und will wieder zu Gott! Der liebe Gott wird mir ein Lichtchen geben, Wird leuchten mir bis in das ewig selig Leben!

5 IM TEMPO DES SCHERZOS

Chorus and Soprano Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n wirst du, Mein Staub, nach kurzer Ruh! Unsterblich Leben! Unsterblich Leben! Wird der dich rief dir geben. Wieder aufzublühn wirst du gesät! Der Herr der Ernte geht Und sammelt Garben Uns ein, die starben!

Alto O glaube, mein Herz, O glaube; Es geht dir nichts verloren! Dein ist, was du gesehnt! Dein, was du geliebt, Was du gestritten!

Soprano O glaube, Du wardst nicht umsonst geboren! Hast nicht umsonst gelebt, Gelitten!

Chorus Was entstanden ist, das muss vergehen! Was vergangen, auferstehen!

Alto O tiny rose so red! Mankind is in greatest distress! Mankind is in greatest agony! How much better it would be to be in Heaven As I came to a broad highway, An Angel came and tried to turn me away. But no! I would not be turned away: From God I come and shall return to God! Dear God will give to me a little light, To light my way to eternal, blessed life!

Chorus and Soprano Rise again, yea, rise again shalt thou, My mortal dust, after brief repose! Eternal life! Eternal life! Shall he who called thee grant thee. To bloom again wert thou sown! The Lord of the Harvest goes And gathers in the sheaves, Of us who died!

Alto Oh believe, my heart, oh believe: Nothing is lost for thee! Thine, yea, thine is all thou hast longed for! Thine is all thou hast loved, All thou hast striven for!

Soprano Oh believe, thou wert not born in vain, Neither hast thou vainly lived, nor suffered!

Chorus Whatsoever is created must also pass away! Whatsoever has passed away, must rise again!

7Texts

Chorus and Alto Hör’ auf zu beben! Bereite dich zu leben! Soprano and Alto O Schmerz! Du Alldurchdringer! Dir bin ich entrungen! O Tod! du Allbezwinger! Nun bist du bezwungen! Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen, In heissem Liebesstreben, Werd’ ich entschweben Zum Licht, zu dem kein Aug’ gedrungen!

Chorus Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen, Werd’ ich entschweben Sterben werd’ ich, um zu leben!

Chorus, Soprano and Alto Aufersteh’n, ja aufersteh’n Wirst du, mein Herz, in einem Nu! Was du geschlagen Zu Gott wird es dich tragen!

Chorus and Alto Cease thy trembling! Prepare to live!

Soprano and Alto O pain! Thou piercer of all things! From thee have I been torn away! O death! Of all things the master! Now art thou mastered! On wings that I have won me In fierce contest of love, Shall I soar away To the light to which no eye hath penetrated!

Chorus On wings that I have won me Shall I soar away! I shall die, in order to live!

Chorus, Soprano and Alto Rise again, yea, rise again Shalt thou, my heart, in an instant! All that thou hast fought for To God shall it bring thee!

• MAHLER ON LSO LIVE

Mahler Symphony No 2

Valery Gergiev conductor Elena Mosuc soprano Zlata Bulycheva alto London Symphony Chorus London Symphony Orchestra

Mahler Symphony No 3

Valery Gergiev conductor Anna Larsson mezzo-soprano Tiffin Boys Choir London Symphony Chorus London Symphony Orchestra Available to purchase at LSO Live and Amazon or to stream on Spotify and Apple Music

lsolive.lso.co.uk

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MORE MAHLER IN 2017/18 Mahler Symphony No 9Sir Simon Rattle conductor 19 & 26 April

Mahler Symphony No 10Sir Simon Rattle conductor

22 April

11Artist Biographies

Semyon Bychkov conductor

Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In the US he can be heard with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras.

In 2018/19, in addition to his commitments to the Czech Philharmonic, including the celebration of 100 years of Czech independence in London and a 13-concert tour of the US, Bychkov will conduct the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Berlin and Munich Philharmonics, the Royal Concertgebouw, Santa Cecilia, the orchestras of Philadelphia and Cleveland, and the New York Philharmonic.

Recognised for his interpretations of the core repertoire, Bychkov has worked closely with many extraordinary contemporary composers including Luciano Berio, Henri Dutilleux and Maurizio Kagel. In recent seasons he has worked with Renée Staar, Thomas Larcher, Richard Dubignon, Detlev Glanert and Julian Anderson, conducting premieres of their works with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC Proms.

Semyon Bychkov was named 2015’s Conductor of the Year by the International Opera Awards. •

ewly appointed as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, Semyon Bychkov

assumes the title at the beginning of the 2018/19 season. Born in St Petersburg in 1952, Bychkov emigrated to the United States in 1975 and has been based in Europe since the mid-1980s.

Following his early concerts with the Czech Philharmonic in 2013, Bychkov and the Orchestra devised The Tchaikovsky Project, a series of concerts, residencies and studio recordings which allowed them the luxury of exploring Tchaikovsky’s music together, both in Prague’s Rudolfinum and abroad. The Tchaikovsky Project culminates in 2019 with residencies in Vienna and Paris, and Decca’s release of all Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, the three piano concertos, Romeo and Juliet, Serenade for Strings and Francesca da Rimini.

Semyon Bychkov won the Rachmaninov Conducting Competition when he was 20 years old. Two years later, having been denied his prize of conducting the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, he left the former Soviet Union. By the time Bychkov returned to St Petersburg in 1989 as the Philharmonic’s Principal Guest Conductor, he had enjoyed success in the US as Music Director of the Grand Rapids Symphony

Orchestra and the Buffalo Philharmonic. His international career, which began in France with Opéra de Lyon and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, had taken off when a series of high-profile cancellations resulted in invitations to conduct the New York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestras. In 1989 he was named Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris; in 1997, Chief Conductor of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne; and the following year, Chief Conductor of the Dresden Semperoper. He conducts in all the major houses including La Scala, Opéra National de Paris, Dresden Semperoper, Wiener Staatsoper, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and Teatro Real, Madrid. In the UK, in addition to regular performances with the London Symphony Orchestra, his honorary titles at the Royal Academy of Music and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – with whom he appears annually at the BBC Proms – reflect the warmth of the relationships. In Europe, he tours frequently with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic, as well as being an annual guest of the Berlin Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Orchestre National de France and the

12 Artist Biographies

Christiane Karg soprano Anna Larsson alto

hristiane Karg studied singing at the Salzburg Mozarteum, where she was awarded the Lilli Lehmann

Medal, and at the Music Conservatory in Verona. She has twice been awarded the prestigious Echo Klassik prize, most recently in 2016 for her disc of concert arias Scene! with Jonathan Cohen and Arcangelo.

In 2006 she made an auspicious debut at the Salzburg Festival. She has since made regular appearances at the Theater an der Wien, Bavarian State Opera in Munich, and Komische Oper Berlin. In 2015 she made her house debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, singing Pamina in Mozart’s The Magic Flute; in 2016 she made her house

debut at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan, singing Sophie in Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier and her US operatic debut singing Susanna in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the Lyric Opera, Chicago.

In concert, Christiane Karg has appeared with many distinguished artists including Christian Thielemann at the Salzburg Easter Festival and with the Berlin Philharmonic; Yannick Nézet-Séguin with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic and at the Mostly Mozart Festival New York; and Jaap van Zweden with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. 2017/18 operatic engagements include debuts at the Vienna State Opera as Mélisande in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and at the Metropolitan Opera Company as Susanna. She will appear in concert with the Orquesta Nacional de España and David Afkham, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester and Rafael Payare, and a European tour with Iván Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra.

Christiane Karg is a distinguished recitalist and has appeared at the Vienna Musikverein, Schwarzenberg Schubertiade, Wigmore Hall and the Edinburgh Festival (where she was awarded the Herald Angel award). •

nna Larsson graduated from the University College of Opera in Stockholm in 1996. Her international

debut followed immediately in Mahler’s Symphony No 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Claudio Abbado, and her opera debut as Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Among her many roles are Kundry in Wagner’s Parsifal, Herodias in Massenet’s Hérodiade, Erda in Wagner’s Siegfried and Fricka in Die Walküre, and Delilah in Saint-Saëns’ Samson and Delilah, at theatres including Teatro alla Scala, Vienna State Opera, Bayerische Staatsoper, Salzburg and

Aix-en-Provence Festivals, the Royal Opera House in London, Teatro Maggio Musicale in Florence, La Monnaie Brussels, Palau des Arts Valencia, Royal Opera Copenhagen, Finnish National Opera and the Swedish Royal Opera.

In concert, Anna Larsson is internationally renowned as a consummate interpreter of Gustav Mahler’s works. She regularly sings with the great orchestras: the Berlin Philharmonic, Lucerne Festival Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras. She has sung with illustrious conductors including Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Harding, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In December 2010 Anna Larsson was appointed Court Singer by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, and in 2011 she opened her own concert house, Vattnäs Concert Barn.

2016/17 included her role debut as Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s Falstaff at the Frankfurt Opera. This season she sings the role of Geneviève in Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande at both the Opéra de Paris and Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin, and returns to Netherlands Opera to revive the role of Waldtaube in Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. •

4 February 2018

13Artist Biographies

Simon Halsey chorus director

Born in London, Simon Halsey sang in the choirs of New College, Oxford, and of King’s College, Cambridge, and studied conducting at the Royal College of Music in London. In 1987, he founded the City of Birmingham Touring Opera with Graham Vick. He was Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir from 1997 to 2008 and Principal Conductor of the Northern Sinfonia’s Choral Programme from 2004 to 2012. From 2001 to 2015 he led the Rundfunkchor Berlin (of which he is now Conductor Laureate); under his leadership the chorus gained a reputation internationally as one of the finest professional choral ensembles. Halsey also initiated innovative projects in unconventional venues and interdisciplinary formats. •

imon Halsey holds positions across the UK and Europe as Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra

and Chorus; Chorus Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus; Artistic Director of Orfeó Català Choirs and Artistic Adviser of Palau de la Música, Barcelona; Artistic Director of Berliner Philharmoniker Youth Choral Programme; Director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir; Artistic Advisor of Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Choir; Conductor Laureate of Rundfunkchor Berlin; and Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Birmingham.

Simon Halsey occupies a unique position in classical music. He is the trusted advisor on choral singing to the world’s greatest conductors, orchestras and choruses, and also an inspirational teacher and ambassador for choral singing to amateurs of every age, ability and background. Making singing a central part of the world-class institutions with which he is associated, he has been instrumental in changing the level of symphonic singing across Europe.

He is also a highly respected teacher and academic, nurturing the next generation of choral conductors on his post-graduate course in Birmingham and through masterclasses at Princeton, Yale and elsewhere. He holds

four honorary doctorates from universities in the UK, and in 2011 Schott Music published his book and DVD on choral conducting, Chorleitung: Vom Konzept zum Konzert.

Halsey has worked on nearly 80 recording projects, many of which have won major awards, including the Gramophone Award, Diapason d’Or, Echo Klassik, and three Grammy Awards with the Rundfunkchor Berlin. He was made Commander of the British Empire in 2015, was awarded The Queen’s Medal for Music in 2014, and received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to choral music in Germany.

Since becoming Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2012, Halsey has been credited with bringing about a ‘spectacular transformation’ (Evening Standard) of the LSC. Highlights with the LSO in 2017/18 include Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the BBC Proms with Sir Simon Rattle and Halsey’s CBSO and Orfeó Català choruses; Liszt’s ‘Faust’ Symphony with Sir Antonio Pappano; and performances of Berlioz and Bernstein with Rattle in his inaugural year as Music Director of the LSO.

14 London Symphony Chorus 4 February 2018

London Symphony Chorus on stage

he London Symphony Chorus was formed in 1966 to complement the work of the London Symphony

Orchestra and in 2016 celebrated its 50th anniversary. The partnership between the LSC and LSO has continued to develop and was strengthened in 2012 with the appointment of Simon Halsey as joint Chorus Director of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO. It now plays a major role in furthering the vision of the LSO Sing initiative.

The LSC has also partnered with many other major orchestras and has performed nationally and internationally with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Championing the musicians of tomorrow, it has also worked with both the National

Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Union Youth Orchestra. The Chorus has toured extensively throughout Europe and has also visited North America, Israel, Australia and South East Asia.

Much of the LSC repertoire has been captured in its large catalogue of recordings featuring renowned conductors and soloists, which have won nine awards, including five Grammys. Recent releases include Britten’s War Requiem with Gianandrea Noseda and Mahler’s Symphonies Nos 2, 3 and 8 with Valery Gergiev. The Seasons by Haydn, Belshazzar’s Feast by Walton, Otello by Verdi, and the world premiere of the St John Passion by James MacMillan were all under the baton of the late Sir Colin Davis. The recent recording of Götterdämmerung with the Hallé under

Sir Mark Elder won a Gramophone award and the recording of the Grande Messe des morts by Berlioz with the LSO conducted by Sir Colin Davis won an International Music Award in the Choral Works category. In June 2015 the recording of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Tenth Symphony, commissioned by the LSO and recorded by the LSO and the LSC with Sir Antonio Pappano, won a prestigious South Bank Sky Arts award in the Classical category.

The 2016/17 season included performances of Verdi’s Requiem with Gianandrea Noseda in the Barbican and at the Lincoln Center in New York, a semi-staging of Ligeti’s Le grand macabre with Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Sellars, and Brahms’ Requiem with Fabio Luisi. The LSC also collaborated with the CBSO and Orfeó Català choruses for Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the BBC Proms with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle in August. Highlights of 2017/18 include Liszt’s ‘Faust’ Symphony with Sir Antonio Pappano and Mahler’s Symphony No 2 with Semyon Bychkov.

The LSC is always interested in recruiting new members, welcoming applications from singers of all backgrounds. Interested singers are welcome to attend rehearsals before arranging an audition. For further information, visit lsc.org.uk. •

President Sir Simon Rattle omcbe

President Emeritus André Previn kbe

Vice President Michael Tilson Thomas

Patrons Simon Russell Beale cbe Howard Goodall cbe

Chorus Director Simon Halsey cbe

Associate Director Matthew Hamilton

Chorus Accompanist Benjamin Frost

Chairman Owen Hanmer

Concert Manager Robert Garbolinski

LSO Choral Projects Manager Andra East

15London Symphony Chorus

* denotes LSC council member

Sopranos Liz Ashling Greta Astedt Faith Baxter Evaleen Brinton Anna Byrne-Smith Anjalie Christopher Alana Clark Jess Collins Eve Commander Shelagh Connolly Barbara De Matos Rebecca Dent Saskia Edwards Lucy Feldman Maureen Hall Isobel Hammond Emily Hoffnung Denise Hoilette Claire Hussey * Alice Jones Debbie Jones Deborah Lee Marylyn Lewin Christina Long

Louisa Martin Maggie Owen Louisa Prentice Alina Pullen Carole Radford Liz Reeve Alison Ryan Jasmine Spencer Deborah Staunton Sarah Talbot Lizzie Webb Rachel Wilson Alice Young

Altos Kate Aitchison Elizabeth Boyden June Brawner Gina Broderick Jo Buchan * Elizabeth Campbell Diane Dwyer Lynn Eaton Amanda Freshwater Christina Gibbs Rachel Green Kate Harrison Elisabeth Iles Ella Jackson * Kristi Jagodin Christine Jasper Jill Jones Vanessa Knapp Gilly Lawson Olivia Lawson

Liz McCaw Jane Muir Dorothy Nesbit Helen Palmer Lucy Reay Lis Smith Erika Stasiuleviciute Margaret Stephen Linda Thomas Claire Trocmé Curzon Tussaud Hannah Wisher

Tenors Jorge Aguilar Paul Allatt * Erik Azzopardi Paul Beecham Raymond Brien Oliver Burrows Michael Delany Colin Dunn Matthew Fernando Matthew Flood Andrew Fuller * Patrizio Giovannotti Simon Goldman Euchar Gravina Anthony Madonna John Marks Matthew McCabe Tobias Müller Daniel Owers Davide Prezzi Michael Scharff Peter Sedgwick Will Shackleton Chris Straw Simon Wales James Warbis Robert Ward * John Warner Paul Williams-Burton

Basses Simon Backhouse * Chris Bourne Gavin Buchan Steve Chevis Matthew Clarke Giles Clayton Damian Day Thomas Fea Ian Fletcher Robert Garbolinski * Josue Garcia Daniel Gosselin John Graham Bryan Hammersley J-C Higgins * Nathan Homan Anthony Howick Alex Kidney Thomas Kohut Andy Langley

George Marshall Hugh Mcleod Geoff Newman Alan Rochford Rod Stevens Richard Tannenbaum Gordon Thomson Robin Thurston Jez Wareing Tyler Wert Anthony Wilder

16 The Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

4 February 2018

Trombones Dudley Bright Peter Moore James Maynard

Bass Trombone Paul Milner

Tuba Ben Thomson

Timpani John Chimes Matt Hardy

Percussion Neil Percy David Jackson Sam Walton Tom Edwards Paul Stoneman Laura Bradford Peter Fry Benedict Hoffnung

Harps Heidi Krutzen Anneke Hodnett

Organ Bernard Robertson

Leader Roman Simovic First Violins Carmine Lauri Clare Duckworth Ginette Decuyper Gerald Gregory Maxine Kwok-Adams Claire Parfitt Laurent Quenelle Harriet Rayfield Colin Renwick Sylvain Vasseur Rhys Watkins Alix Lagasse Jan Regulski Benjamin Roskams Julia Rumley

Second Violins Thomas Norris Sarah Quinn Miya Väisänen David Ballesteros Richard Blayden Matthew Gardner Julian Gil Rodriguez Naoko Keatley Belinda McFarlane William Melvin Iwona Muszynska Paul Robson Dmitry Khakhamov Eugenio Sacchetti

Violas Jane Atkins Gillianne Haddow Malcolm Johnston Anna Bastow May Dolan Julia O’Riordan Robert Turner Jonathan Welch Stephen Doman Carol Ella Philip Hall Felicity Matthews

Cellos Rebecca Gilliver Jennifer Brown Noel Bradshaw Eve-Marie Caravassilis Daniel Gardner Hilary Jones Amanda Truelove Victoria Harrild Miwa Rosso Deborah Tolksdorf

Double Basses Colin Paris Patrick Laurence Matthew Gibson Thomas Goodman Joe Melvin Marco Behtash Hugh Sparrow Simo Väisänen

Flutes Gareth Davies Alex Jakeman Clare Childs

Piccolo Patricia Moynihan

Oboes Rosie Jenkins Juliana Koch Maxwell Spiers

Cor Anglais Christine Pendrill

Clarinets Andrew Marriner Thomas Lessels Chris Richards

E-flatClarinet Chi-Yu Mo

Bass Clarinet Laurent Ben Slimane

Bassoons Daniel Jemison Lawrence O’Donnell Antonia Lazenby

Contra Bassoon Dominic Morgan

Horns Katy Woolley Angela Barnes Alexander Edmundson Jonathan Lipton Jason Koczur Daniel Curzon Robert McIntosh Off-StageHorns Richard Watkins Andrew Budden Hugh Seenan Laura Llewellyn Jones

Trumpets Philip Cobb Gerald Ruddock Niall Keatley Paul Mayes Robin Totterdell Toby Street David Geoghegan

Off-StageTrumpets David Elton Ryan Linham Neil Fulton Joe Sharp

LSO String Experience Scheme Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Scheme has enabled young string players from the London music conservatoires at the start of their professional careers to gain work experience by playing in rehearsals and concerts with the LSO. The musicians are treated as professional ‘extra’ players (additional to LSO members) and receive fees for their work in line with LSO section players. The Scheme is supported by The Polonsky Foundation, Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust, The Thistle Trust and Idlewild Trust.

Editor Edward Appleyard | edward.appleyard@lso.co.uk Fiona Dinsdale | fiona.dinsdale@lso.co.uk Editorial Photography Ranald Mackechnie, Gisela Schenker, Anna Thorbjörnsson, Peter Adarnik, Matthias Heyde Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.